Cust has potential to immediately help Astros with homers, walks

KISSIMMEE, Fla. — It’s no accident and no simple product of meter and rhyme that at the end of Ernest Thayer’s poem Casey at the Bat, the protagonist wasn’t retired on a shallow pop to left field.

Mudville would have been just as melancholy had our hero tapped one back to the mound. Or been called out for going out of the baseline. But there’s something about the strikeout and that long walk back.

In Jack Cust, the Astros have themselves a new player plenty familiar with that walk. But also — and this is what caught the Astros’ eye this winter — a player plenty familiar with the true baseball sense of the walk and with the only slightly quicker pace of the trot.

Cust is everything the Astros have not been, and mostly that’s a good thing for a team that homered, walked and struck out less than any team in the majors in 2010 and remained near the bottom in 2011.

“Jack has gotten the most out of his abilities in his career because he’s got a good eye and he’s got a lot of power and utilizes that combination really well,” said general manager Jeff Luhnow, who signed Cust in January to a free-agent deal for 2012 plus a 2013 option.

“As a team, we didn’t get on base as much as we would have liked to last year.”

The strikeouts — he led the American League each year from 2007-09 — are a necessary cost of a deep-count approach that put Cust’s on-base percentage, even in a really down 2011 for him, 33 points above that of the Astros as a team.

He’s trying to reduce the strikeouts. Strikeouts, assuming the ball is caught, mean there’s no chance to beat one out and no chance for a fielder to foul one up.

“Nobody wants to strike out — it’s not a good feeling,” Cust said. “But it’s something that I’ve done since I was drafted. I’ve always struck out a lot. Whether it was in the minor leagues, where I hit .300 and .330, I still struck out 150-160 times.”

He’s tried to change his approach, but an effort to focus on a more contact-oriented approach zapped his power last year. After hitting 97 home runs in almost four full seasons with Oakland, he hit just three in 270 plate appearances and was released by the Mariners, with whom he signed after a brief flirtation with the Astros in the 2010-11 offseason.

One year later, he was intrigued by the opportunity to join the Astros and turn back from a designated hitter to an outfielder — he’ll get work in both corners and a few ground balls at first base as the Astros prepare for their final season in the National League. He’ll have lots of competition for the corner jobs with seven outfielders on the 40-man roster, plus Travis Buck and Justin Ruggiano in camp and infield-first guys like Matt Downs and Brian Bixler getting occasional work in the pasture.

The other thing that intrigued Cust was Minute Maid Park, which would be a welcome change from that large ballpark of routinely changing names that he called home in Oakland.

“I think my swing is conducive to me doing some damage, as the left field is close,” the lefthanded hitting Cust said. “That’s generally where my power is, the opposite field, which I think separates me from other guys. I don’t need to pull the ball to hit the ball out.”

But on a team that has lost home run threats in Hunter Pence and Lance Berkman in the last two years and not had much luck yet in replacing that power, hitting them out anywhere will be welcomed.

zachary.levine@chron.com

Photo: Karen Warren / Houston Chronicle

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Feb. 28
Astros second baseman Matt Downs takes swings in the cage during batting practice on Tuesday in Kissimmee, Fla.

Feb. 28
Astros second baseman Matt Downs takes swings in the cage during batting practice on Tuesday in Kissimmee, Fla.

Photo: Karen Warren / Houston Chronicle

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Starting pitcher Bud Norris warms up his arm with the hose on the fence.

Starting pitcher Bud Norris warms up his arm with the hose on the fence.

Photo: Karen Warren / Houston Chronicle

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Brett Myers warms up on the day that manager Brad Mills announced that Myers will be the team's closer.

Brett Myers warms up on the day that manager Brad Mills announced that Myers will be the team's closer.